History

click map to enlarge. Source: Library of Congress

Map of the Week is written by David A., a systems librarian and map geek living in NoMa. David previously wrote about the Potomac River from 1861.

Title: Birdseye view of the National Capital, including the site of the proposed World’s Exposition of 1892 and Permanent Exposition of the Three Americas

I really like this 1888 bird’s-eye view of the National Mall and surrounding area. This map laid out plans for a permanent exposition and a world’s fair to celebrate the centennial of the U.S. Constitution and the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival. Some interesting details include old-timey ships on the SW Waterfront, a presumably never-built tower bridge across the Potomac, a Star of David-shaped monument to Columbus and a strangely empty street grid in SW. Proponents made their case for a Washington-hosted world’s fair in a January 18, 1890 issue of the Evening Star newspaper. They were unsuccessful. Chicago ended up hosting a quadricentennial world’s fair in 1893 to great acclaim.

click map to enlarge. Source: Library of Congress

Map of the Week is written by David A., a systems librarian and map geek living in NoMa. David previously wrote about Alexandria County from 1879.

Title: Map of the Potomac River (1861)

This week’s hand-drawn map of the Potomac River and its tributaries comes from the Civil War era diary of Robert Knox Sneden, a map-maker for the Union Army. Railroad routes and stations feature prominently. The Library of Congress hosts 316 of Sneden’s maps on its website.

click map to enlarge. Source: Library of Congress

Map of the Week is written by David A., a systems librarian and map geek living in Mt. Pleasant. David previously wrote about Palisades of the Potomac from 1890.

This week’s 1879 map provides a view of Arlington and Alexandria when they were part of the federal district. If you look close, you can see that this map splits the former Alexandria County into three different smaller “districts”: the Washington District to the west, the Jefferson District to the east and the Arlington District in the middle.

Notable features include the names of many of the area’s landowners, the names of railroad stations, and the C&O Canal segment connecting Alexandria to the aquaduct bridge to Georgetown. The canal, also known as the Alexandria Canal, would be abandoned seven years after this map’s printing.

click map to enlarge. Source: Library of Congress

Map of the Week is written by David A., a systems librarian and map geek living in Mt. Pleasant. David previously wrote about a Topographical sketch of the environs of DC from 1867

Title: James E. Clements’ map of Washington City and surrounding country

James E. Clements’ 1891 map is all about selling the capital region to prospective buyers of real estate. The copy boasts of the region:

The people are neighborly, hospitable, cultivated and generous, and political liberty and freedom of opinions are enjoyed untrammeled and to their fullest extent. The taxes are low, and the public roads are good, being rapidly converted into solid stone and gravel highways. In fact, everything here is combined to make homes in this section comfortable, profitable, enlightened, and happy.

The mustachioed Clements is pictured at the top left of the map and sells the region thusly:

There is no safer investment of money than in Real Estate, and there is no surer place to invest that near Washington City, the Capital of the Nation. Real Estate here will never depreciate, but to the contrary will ever continue to enhance in value. Now is the time to purchase.

Yours, very truly,
James E. Clements

In 1891, lots in Brookland were priced starting at $200. That’s a little over $5,000 in today’s money.